Hop.. or Flop?

I saw Hop yesterday afternoon. My local cinema had an advance screening so I decided to 'hop' on over and see it!! I didn't really know much about this movie before hand but had seen the trailer. In hindsight the trailer and the posters adorning the cinema walls were somewhat mis-leading as I thought this was a totally animated feature. It isn't. It is a live action movie and neither the trailer or posters show this.





The trailer itself was really good. I loved the rabbit pushing the drums around and then starting to play. But again it gives absolutely no impression to what the movie was about. After the movie finished I mulled this over in my mind. I believe this is doing well in the U.S at the moment and I really wonder how such a poorly promoted movie can achieve that. How do people decide to go a movie when the promotional material doesn't show the true nature of the movie??

So the promotion was poor and I went into this movie completely blind. Expecting an animated feature I was quickly brought down to earth when I found it wasn't. The technique isn't original as it was started by Who Framed Roger Rabbit many years ago. The recent G-Force was another example. The technique isn't bad, the problem is that it has never been used to make a really good movie. I'm afraid Hop follows the trend.

I was really expecting this to a good movie. I was seriously let down. It is for the children alone. Any adult, and I mean any, will groan at the awfulness of this and be stretched to sit through its entirety I was in a theater that was almost full and yet I noticed the kids were not engaged by this movie. There was lots of fidgeting, talking, and general lack of interest in the movie. Bingo I thought, this movie is a failure. Even with being a purposely driven children's movie this fails.

Kids are used to the quality of Pixar and Disney, where as this was quite poor. The animated Rabbits, their environment on Easter Island, and the other characters really don't stand out animation wise. But it gets worse because the script is rubbish and any kid just will not buy into it. The acting is awful and if it is possible to be below b-grade then Hop achieves it.





All in all Hop is, to be blunt, rubbish. As an adult I say to fellow adults, avoid, avoid, avoid!! Even your kids will be cold on this. If they want to see it wait to it is out on DVD so as you don't have to be in the same room at the same time!! If you are subjected to watching it you will be appalled by it and wonder how and why it has done so well at the box office. It's only redeeming feature is that it is better than the abysmal Yogi Bear, which again is live animation and bad. Why is it that this animation technique cannot be used to make a decent movie. It seems to be an obligation to make them awful!!

Very disappointing, and definitely one for the children alone. Even they though may find this rubbish and be unable to finish watching it. Thank goodness that Cars and Rio are to be released soon and show us what quality animation is all about!!